Faith and Confidence
by NCR Ranger
Summary: Its something that Cortanna and her Created fail to understand: why humans fight, and what we have to live for


Thomas Lasky had been the Captain of the _Infinity _ for over a year now. He liked to believe he'd finally gotten used to its incomparable size. Or its incomparable fighting might.

Emphasis on _incomparable_. There was no other vessel ever built by the human race that even approached the _Infinity's_ stature and combat strength. From stern to bow, Infinity measured over 18,000 ft. _18,000, _from the tips of her 3 yawingly wide engine exhaust ports ( which were bigger around than heavy freight carrier ships ), to the muzzles of her 4 bow-mounted Series 8 MACs, each of which fired 3,000 ton shells which struck their targets with more force than Thermonuclear bombs.

She wasn't only long; _Infinity_ was _big_, too. She tipped the scales at over 900 million tons, effortlessly making her the heaviest vessel in the fleet. She had a 2,000 ft beam, and over 3,000 ft from her top deck to the bottom one. In between all those vast ( for a ship, to boot ) distances,_ Infinity_ housed all the space and systems to support and boast an entire _fleet'_s worth of firepower. She had_ thousands_ of missiles- many of which were the new and improved Rapier and Howler missiles, both of which were capable of flat out pulverizing a fully shielded Covenant destroyer- something that the older Archer missiles hadn't been able to achieve. To back up the missile network, and to deal with targets that were smaller, quicker, and/or managed to get near, _Infinity_ could unleash her hundreds of mass accelerator auto- cannons, including the fearsome MK 2551 Onager Mass Driver guns, or the one of a kind M965 Fortress batteries.

All that immense weaponry needed a crew to service them, of course. _Infinity_ had no shortage of personnel, though: She had over _18,000_ of them, carried within her hull, swaddled in several meters worth ( 16 ft, to be exact ) of the highest grade Titanium-A armor, and with bonna fide _energy shields_ overlapping them. Beneath all that protection, 8,000 sailors, 1,000 ONI operatives , 400 UEG officials , at least 2 dozen Swords of Sanghelios warriors, roughly a half dozen " assets " ( which was ONI speak for " Don't ask any questions; they take orders from us and nobody else " ), 5,000 marines, 800 soldiers, 750 ODSTs , and 200 airmen.

Besides tending to the weapons and systems of the _Infinity_ herself, this veritable army of men and women who called the dreadnought home were also the ones who operated her division- sized fleet of combat craft and vehicles. _Infinity_ had over 700 of them, stored and housed within her numerous and gargantuan hangar bays, garages, and mechanical depots: 500 M12 Warthog Fast Recon Vehicle, 80 M820 Scorpion Main Battle Tanks, 10 M510 Mammoth Siege Platforms, 453 SOEIVs ( Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle, aka " drop pods "), 100 F-41E Broadsword and GA-TL1 Longsword fighter bombers, 100 D79-TC Pelican Gunships/Dropships , and 8 D96-TCE Albatross Bulk troop transports.

As dizzying as that was, there was more. A _lot_ more, Lasky knew.

Last but _certainly_ not least, there were the 10 frigates ( yes, _frigates_ ) that were docked inside the massive carrier-battleship. The _Strident_ class heavy frigates were small fry compared to _Infinity_, but they were still fairly large for frigates; weighing in at 1 million tons, a length of 1,000 ft., a beam of 400ft, and 300ft between its top and bottom decks, the _Stridents _were more destroyer than frigate. They packed a fitting punch to boot, with a MKIV MAC that stood nearly eye to eye with the punching strength of a _cruiser_'s main guns. The Hyperion nuclear missiles they carried were the icing on top the energy shielded cake.

That was finally it. That was well and truly it: the full spectrum of _Infinity's _place as the most powerful, biggest of stature, most high profile fighting ship in the UNSC Navy. A ship that was one of a kind ( though technically, she did have a sister ship, the UNSC _Eternity , _that was under construction ). She had many enemies but no equals ( not even the lumbering CSO supercarriers truly counted ), and was arguably as much of a symbol and an icon as much as she was a warship.

Or, a lifeboat.

_That's what my ship has become, hasn't she ?, _Lasky thought, as he made his way along the viewing corridor that looked out over one of the aforementioned massive hangar bays. _We're all on the run, and the Infinity's our raft._

He couldn't let his inner thought show, of course. As he walked along, deck shoes clacking, he nodded at the occasional crewmember that was going the other way, in response to them quickly standing to attention when they saw him. It was good to see discipline hadn't suffered, in spite of their current plight. The exuberant New Year's Party they'd thrown recently had done something as well; the crew's morale still seemed to be holding together, from what Lasky had seen. He'd seen more smiles than he'd thought, and even a few chuckles.

An optimistic sign. None of them were machines, after all. They had to keep on living, no matter what.

_I couldn't have asked for a better crew. They're solid, every one of them- or so I've found thus far._

But, they also had to stay on the alert, and stay ready and able to keep fighting the Galaxy-marauding Guardians that Cortanna had so liberally unleashed. Or, rather, by " fighting ", that really was " running from Point A to point B, then C, and so on ". The titanic Forerunner star constructs were essentially fleets themselves, after all, and only 1 of them could release an EMP pulse that was wide reaching and powerful shut down absolutely everything within the orbit of, and across entire continents of, a whole _planet_\- Earth itself had been on the receiving end of that.

Even _Infinity _would be nothing more than a 900 million ton paperweight if one of those EMP waves hit her. Whether or not she could blow apart a Guardian with her MACs was beside the point, if he Guardian triggered an EMP blast before the rounds could hit home. Or, even worse, if the Guardian wasn't alone. Infinity could kill one of them, only to be rendered utterly helpless by the other.

If Infinity could join up with a large enough fleet of UNSC heavyweight ships- _Vindicator_ battleships, _Valiant_ super heavy cruisers- she'd lead them in an attack on even a group of Guardians, and they'd have a decent chance of eliminating them before the EMP could be set off. But, in between fleeing from the subjugation of Earth by the Guardian, and right now,_ Infinity_ hadn't been able to do so. Guardian attacks were wreaking havoc on interstellar comm relays, and with the random nature of Guardians popping up left and right, Infinity couldn't linger anywhere for too long, even if a UNSC fleet _was_ inbound- and in all likelihood, what fleets and task forces the UNSC had were doubtlessly busy evacuating human colonies from out of the Guardians' way.

_They're running. We're running. Meanwhile, Cortanna continues her mindless crusade, following a mandate that's been out of date for 50,000 years._

_The Mantle of Responsibility._

Lasky scoffed. The Mantle was a _Forerunner_ mindset. They'd thought they were too powerful and dominant to fall; what good had that done them now ? Arrogance always sinks the ship, and even the mad AI Cortanna wasn't impervious to that. Or her Guardians.

Trouble was, they _were_ actually machines. They didn't have emotions, or thoughts. They did what they were programmed to do, and they were devastatingly good at it. Cortanna was wrapped up in delusions of grandeur, and the flowery, badly flawed concept that peace could be forced.

They were still arrogant, but they didn't know it. They were still overwhelmingly powerful, but they weren't invincible. Lasky hadn't actually gotten any report of the massive machines being destroyed, but that didn't matter. Not to him. The_ Mantle's Approach_\- the flagship of the mad- as Cortanna-now-was Ur-Didact and easily the largest vessel Lasky had ever seen ( though its hull still hadn't been strong enough to shield it from getting pierced by the _Infinity'_s MACs ) had not proven to be invincible. The Master Chief had blown it to kingdom come with a HAVOC, gutting the planet-sized ship from the inside out.

Once again, 117 was an example. Once again, a Spartan had been an example. They proved over 30 years ago that the Covenant's ships could be taken out; now they'd proven that even the biggest the Forerunner's themselves could assemble could be killed as well.

_We know we_ can_ do it. Actually doing it is the trick, though. If we don't find a way to RV with other ships soon, I'll take my chances alone. I know its risking the ship, and all my crew, but how its spending the rest of our days running away any better ? _

The ship, and his crew. He was fighting for them.

Stopping, Lasky turned to the side. He'd reached the near center of the corridor, and had a panoramic view of the hangar through the windows.

It was busy as usual, with rows of Pelicans neatly parked in their revetments , surrounded by crates of munitions and snaking fuel hoses. Troop carrying M12s rolled across the deck with varying loads. It was a loud and sprawling space, with Broadswords lifting off on their white-blue VTOL jets, before gliding out through the simmering energy barriers that served to keep the hangar secure when the blast doors were open ( unless someone yelled for them to be closed, and then opened again while chasing smugglers ) . Landing lights flashed and blinked, showing outbound and inbound craft their way.

Lasky saw every_one_, not only every_thing, _though. Crews of Pelicans stood around their craft, tending to them and talking among themselves. Squads of ODSTs jogged by on fitness runs, in full armor ( of course, because they were all certified hardasses ), weaving around the moving mountains that were the twin barreled Grizzly Super Main Battle Tanks- some the _Infinity'_s special guests, on their way to scheduled maintenance. Deck gangs were all over the place, with the ones in red busy as they drove utility tractors towing pallets of stacked bombs and rockets. Purple ones kept the winding hoses from getting in the way of anybody or anything. Once or twice, Lasky thought he saw someone dressed in black staring out from some point of high ground, but before he could be sure, the ONI operative vanished.

_Wretched spooks. At least the Guardians are up in your face._

Well, there they were: A glimpse of what was going on 24/7 all over the ship. The crew and everyone embarked on her going about their responsibilities, while taking a minute or so out of their crazy hectic lives to swap words about what was on their minds.

( And they were no doubt taking those interactions to more, well, _intimate_ levels. Disciplined or not, being sealed in a giant metal tube tended to do things to men and women's minds. Nature took care of the rest. Lasky had personally neither seen any of this, nor gotten any reports, but it stood to reason there were statistically a few cases. Somewhere. )

Shaking his head, Lasky focused on observing the hangar. There could even be one of those, incidents, going right here as he was looking, and he wouldn't know it, what with the hangar being even bigger a football field, and riddled with multiple levels, nooks and crannies. Any and all of them would and could serve as ideal out of the way places.

_I am one to talk, though, aren't I. What with me and Sarah, after all. Pot calling the kettle black_

" Lasky. Enjoying the view ? "

As if by some bizarre cue-

Blinking with mild surprise, Lasky turned his head to the right, to perceive none other than Sarah Palmer herself standing there, observing him.

She was not wearing her armor, for a welcome change. Instead, she was clad in her service fatigues, which Lasky preferred. After all, the GEN 2 MJOLINR armor hid the person under it a bit too well, despite being sleeker and more lithe than the Spartan 2's suits. In her fatigues though, on the other hand, the contour of her hips was visible.

Besides, even out of their armor, Spartan 4's loomed over everyone anyway, at a humble 6ft. 9.

Sarah's brunette hair was tightly pulled back, as always. And again, as always, she pulled off the " I am very dangerous, but beautiful " look quite well. Lasky didn't bother attempting not to look her up and down, albeit quickly, with a flick of his eyes.

Y_ou're not the only one who's admiring a view._

With a turned up corner of his mouth, Lasky responded: " Inspecting ship operations, Commander. "

" I _see_ ", Sarah sidled over, coming to a halt by Lasky's side, and crossing her arms, also casting a glance out over the expansive bay.

" Watching the worker bees ? That's the kind of thing an emperor does. I hope you're not getting high minded ideals of ambition. You remember that saying about giving someone power "

" Napoleon would agree with that", Lasky nodded, unconsciously mirroring her stance. " Still, I am a sailor like them, captain bars on my shoulders or not. Coming down to see them in action helps remind me of that: We're all in the same boat, in more ways in one. "

" How humble. But, with you, I think its actually real. "

" Hmm ? Is that right ?"

" Yes ", Sarah stated, her tone becoming empathetic. " You're the boss here, not a set of insignia that gives orders. I've been in the service long enough to tell the difference. "

" Actually, so have you. I know you already know. Still, I thought it was worth saying. Takes one to know one, as they say. "

Lasky turned his head again to look at her. Sarah was still watching the activity in the bay, but Lasky noted she had a look in her eyes. Lasky recognized it:

She loved this ship as much as he did. She cared for its crew as much as he did. As the head of all the Spartans embarked on_ Infinity,_ Sarah had a lot on her shoulders as well. Having them forced to flee again and again, without being able to fight, was hard on her, and her Spartans. It was the last thing they wanted, and Lasky ached for them to get their shot.

_We're not running forever. We've been running long enough._

_I can't tell everyone what the next step is, not yet. But Sarah's not only anyone._

" You know we're not done with them, don't you ? ", asked Lasky.

" Yes. Mostly because _they're_ not done with _us_. No Spartan stands down till their enemies are all dead, but these Guardians- "

" _Look_ at me, Sarah. "

She did as he said. Now he saw there was some frustration in her eyes as well, all aimed at the mad AI and her army of like minded cronies. Her sculpted Spartan shoulders had tensed a bit, a hint of how upset she was that there was nothing she and her Spartans could do against the Guardians.

Lasky bit his lower lip for a second or so, before continuing.

"I realized something now, staring at all of that down there. There's no point to us having all of this if we don't _use_ it. Maybe we can fight the Guardians. Maybe we can't. Maybe all we can do is get folks off their colonies before a Guardian finds them. Either and anyway, we're going to do something. As of today, the _Infinity _is done running. "

" You know its not over Sarah. I know you know, but I thought it was worth saying. "

Sarah blinked, no doubt surprised at how deftly Lasky had used her own words on her. Her mouth opened slightly, and she didn't say anything for a moment-

Then it formed up into a determined smirk.

" You know how to talk to women, don't you ? "

"Thank my mother ". Lasky reached out, and squeezed her forearm, feeling the firmness of it through the fatigue materiel.

" And I know you. We've been here before, but I have nothing against coming back to it. "

Sarah glanced down at Lasky's grip on her, then give him one of her own, taking him by his arm, and gently ( for a Spartan, who had superhuman strength ) pulling him up to her.

" You're, going to kiss me, aren't you ? ", Lasky tipped his head back, enough to look her in the eye.

" Is that a problem ? "

Lasky indicated the hand that held his arm. " When a Spartan grabs you, there's not much you can do about it. "

" You got that right ", Sarah replied, as she leaned down to press her lips to his.

The kiss was typical Sarah: short, but meaningful ( and it left Lasky's lips a bit sore- Spartan strength was still a thing ). It stopped time too, for all of a few great seconds.

Upon pulling back, Sarah still didn't let him go, but Lasky saw a new glint in her eyes:

Purpose. Drive. It'd been hidden before, but it was out now.

She had all she needed for the fight ahead: Her own ability, her Spartans-

And Lasky at the helm of them all.

_I won't let them down, Sarah._

_I won't let you down, either._

Lasky didn't need to say that, though.

He knew she already knew.


End file.
